"There's… more about that 'son'?!"
Rosalyne was the first to blow a fuse.
From Su Xuan's last diary line, one thing was clear: after Scaramouche ruined her plans and others' lives, he didn't crash headfirst into misfortune—he actually lived better than before?
Rosalyne stamped her heel. "Su Xuan, what's his deal!?"
Shenhe, thoughtful, asked evenly, "You mean his fate?"
By now, none of the girls were strangers to the world's great lie. The False Firmament that nets Teyvat's lives—and their destinies—had been laid bare to the diary-bearers. Strong wills can go astray; the False Firmament has its own countermeasures. If it can map fate and pre-empt deviations, then it must also own a fate-correction protocol to steer the world to its "intended ending."
Su Xuan's last sentence had been easy enough to parse: the one named Scaramouche enjoyed a destiny kinder than anyone's.
Rosalyne's jaw set, her expression twisting. As a Fatui Harbinger, she did ugly things—but always toward the Tsaritsa's design. Scaramouche's murder of the Raiden Gokaden was pure personal vengeance.
"Don't tell me the brat wrecked Inazuma, backstabbed colleagues, and walked away scot-free."
Su Xuan spread his hands. "I said it already: compare people and you'll want to keel over. 'Thunder Cannon' has backing. Do you?"
Rosalyne froze—then went pale. Backing, from Su Xuan's mouth, sounded like the heavens themselves were watching over Scaramouche.
Seeing her stunned, Su Xuan laughed. "Brace yourself. Don't go catatonic when you hear the rest."
He turned a page and kept writing.
[He reveled in revenge, sure—but he never got over being abandoned by A-Shadow.]
[And he never accepted being a heartless puppet.]
[His greatest wish: to obtain his own "heart."]
[Thus began a premeditated play built around that desire.]
[Dottore joined hands with Sumeru's ambitious Akademiya sages to set him on a god's throne.]
[The God-Making Project.]
Nilou: "?"
Nahida: "?"
Rosalyne gaped. He… ascended?
So that's the path the False Firmament set? Why should a man like that be favored?
[To fit his 'Electro' theme, Ei's Gnosis became the target.]
[By rights, Ei's Gnosis should've been the hardest to obtain.]
[But Thunder Cannon is Thunder Cannon.]
[He did nothing—just waited at the Delusion factory—and the Gnosis fell into his hands.]
[Because Delusions killed many of Watatsumi's rebels, my dear Lumine got angry and went to demand his head.]
[She wasn't his match yet; at the last moment, Yae Miko traded Ei's Gnosis to save Lumine.]
[Yes—this brat tried to kill my sweet Lumine twice.]
[Lumine is a Descender, Teyvat's hope. Thunder Cannon, Thunder Cannon…]
Lumine: "…"
So I'm cosmically at odds with Ei's puppets? The Shogun nearly beheaded me; the Balladeer tried twice.
[Back to the point.]
[Lumine isn't bound by the False Firmament. Even without her involvement, the Gnosis was fated to land in his hands.]
[Why? The Delusion plant.]
[Dottore initiated it; Rosalyne—the unlucky one—oversaw it. When production finished…]
[Thunder Cannon appeared, kicked Rosalyne aside, and monopolized Delusions in Inazuma.]
[To halt the spread, Miko had to negotiate with him—trading Ei's Gnosis to stop the Delusions.]
[Fun bit: Thunder Cannon received the Gnosis three or four days before Rosalyne's audience with the Shogun.]
[Unaware, she went to Tenshukaku days later, lost the duel before the throne to Lumine, and the Shogun struck her down.]
Rosalyne: "…. "
[After taking the Gnosis, Thunder Cannon cut contact with Snezhnaya. Childe even traveled to Inazuma and learned nothing.]
[By then, Thunder Cannon had left with Dottore for Sumeru.]
[Dottore paid the Akademiya with rare data; the sages used the Akasha to tap into citizens' minds and forced 168 dream loops—]
[—to harvest dreams as fuel for godhood.]
Nahida's brows pinched tight. The others blanched. The Akasha was common to travelers in Sumeru—but to invade minds and strip dreams to enthrone a Harbinger… swine would blush.
[In the end, Thunder Cannon did become a 'god'.]
[Success—strictly speaking, a mechanical descent.]
[They built the Divine Machine—Shouki no Kami, the Prodigal—to channel the Gnosis and pipe power into him.]
[He strutted about, lamenting he'd missed the Archon War.]
[Then he met the little Dendro god once—]
[—and fell straight into her 168-cycle dream loop.]
[Petty? No—just. She was repaying them in kind for trapping Sumeru in dreams.]
[With all that performance data in hand, she fed it to Lumine—]
[—and Lumine smashed the Divine Machine until it sparked, reducing it to scrap.]
[Nahida reclaimed Ei's Gnosis with ease. Thunder Cannon became a Sumeru prisoner.]
"Pfft—" Yae Miko couldn't hold it; she burst out laughing.
Lumine arched a brow and squared her shoulders. "Seems my trip had its highlights. Challenged a 'god' and left him smoking."
Paimon sniffed. "Still, to make a god at the cost of your own people—those sages are awful." She side-eyed Raiden Ei.
Raiden Ei stiffened. "Why that look?"
Paimon scratched her cheek. "Compared to them, Inazuma's Three Commissions seem… kind of cute."
Raiden Ei: "…"
What kind of compliment is that? Dirt is still dirt.
"But Su Xuan said his luck is absurd," Miko pressed. "How does that square with being a prisoner?"
"It is odd," Lumine agreed. "But if Su Xuan says his fate runs hot, there's more to it. Let's read."
[Rosalyne just hopped for joy at his capture—]
[—clapping like a seal.]
[But the real reversal was only beginning…]
Rosalyne: "?"
There had already been more than enough scandal: a caged Archon, a God-Making plot, success on the backs of the people—only for the "god" to fold at first contact with the Little Lucky Grass King. And still, the tale wasn't done.
[With Lumine and Nahida together, Sumeru settled.]
[Nahida then invited Lumine to view the last memories left by Greater Lord Rukkhadevata (Buer), seeking why she vanished.]
[The truth was grief: in the Khaenri'ah calamity, Rukkhadevata was tainted by the Abyss.]
[As the avatar of the World Tree (Irminsul), her taint gave the Abyss a path into the Tree.]
[To cleanse it, Rukkhadevata asked Nahida to delete all records of her from Irminsul.]
[Except for Lumine—unrecorded by the Tree—everyone in Teyvat forgot her.]
[It was terrifying. For Nahida, devastating.]
[With Rukkhadevata erased, the world now 'recognized' Nahida as Sumeru's first Archon.]
[But the truth is: she was second.]
[When the second is forcibly deemed the first, the first and second both 'vanish' from history.]
[The Nahida who adored Rukkhadevata no longer existed; in her place stood a Nahida who believed herself the first.]
[A different being, in a real sense.]
[What did this 'first' do?]
[To probe Irminsul, she led Thunder Cannon into it—and showed him the truth of Tatarasuna.]
[Dottore was the architect.]
[Overwhelmed by guilt and error, Thunder Cannon chose:]
[He would erase himself from Irminsul to 'bring back' those he'd harmed.]
[He deleted his own record.]
[But Irminsul holds memory, not reality. The result: everyone except Lumine forgot he'd ever existed and all he'd done.]
[No victims returned; only the culprit vanished from blame.]
Everyone went numb.
Why had a Nahida who believed herself "first" guided him to Irminsul… and why was deletion even possible? Erasing a person from the world's memory—self, others, everyone—was the most elegant escape imaginable. But identity is memory. Uproot it, and the self becomes someone else.
[You think that's the end?]
[If it were… it wouldn't be Thunder Cannon's life.]
The girls: "His… life still isn't done?"
[This 'first' Nahida intended to use a once-near-Archon-class Thunder Cannon as a Sumeru asset.]
[She'd backed up his memories in advance.]
[Using Lumine—unaffected by Irminsul—she lured the memoryless Thunder Cannon to her.]
[Lumine's testimony rekindled Nahida's recollection, she pulled the backup, and—]
[—she gave Thunder Cannon his memories back.]
[After that, only Lumine, Nahida-as-'first', and Thunder Cannon himself remembered his deeds.]
[To the rest of Teyvat, he'd never existed.]
[He was washed clean.]
[More: under Grand Sage Azar's edicts, desert children had no right to study.]
[But not our Cannon. He walked into Sumeru and became a scholar of the Vahumana Darshan on day one.]
[Who can claim a life more gilded?]
[Every light goes green for him.]
[Miko wanted him dead; Ei's softness spared him—]
[—and tragedy followed.]
[If the 'birth mother' wouldn't keep him, the 'heavens' had already arranged a foster mother in Sumeru.]
[He leeched the people's dreams for power.]
[Nahida ran him through 168 loops; 'second' flipped to 'first'.]
['First' took office and absolved his life.]
[Forget the desert kids barred from school—]
[Look at Shenhe: Solitary Star curse since childhood; mother gone; father tried to sacrifice her to a god.]
[Look at Eula: what did the Lawrence clan's sins have to do with her? She fought to redeem their name, and still, when she buys a drink, she's judged for her blood.]
[That's her lot—no matter how hard she works, Mond's people won't forgive her.]
[Or Navia of Fontaine: mother died in childbirth; father died a villain in name to protect her; even loyal retainers fell away; in the end, none of the dearest die well.]
[Now look at Thunder Cannon.]
[He wakes, 'experiences life,' declares the world betrayed him, and many die for his rage.]
[He plagues Inazuma, then Sumeru—yet stays in Sumeru living large.]
[If I'd been handed Shenhe's or Eula's script, I'd swear myself to the Tsaritsa's cause and spear the sky itself. If the cost is death, then we die—but I refuse to swallow such cowardice.]
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